European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 03, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Many maw year s revellers helped one another to climb up on the Wall. Celebrating a new world continued from Page 13 hand me a Hammer a woman urges i want to hit it nearby Long orderly lines of germans from both sides stretch out from the big opening by the Brandenburg Gate waiting to properly Cross Over. Americans and others Iron non East bloc countries still can t Cross Here at All and Are told to go to checkpoint Charlie. By Nightfall the streets run solid with armies of big eyes and throbbing hearts. Germans British French Swiss americans and japanese pouring in from every direction. Streaming in an electric Rush an adrenaline charge toward the place. The great Stone columns of the Brandenburg Gale. Berlin s most famous landmark since 1791, standing just inside the East and sealed off by the communists for years closer now. Thousands of legs moving faster. It is cold but few feel it in the body heat of this surging mass of flesh and dreams. Suddenly there it is the symbolic Gate the old crossing Point rising up in the Glare and Racket of bursting fireworks wreathed in White Drifting plumes of smoke like a dream. Caught in the crush of the mob you press on to the Wall. On top Are shouting Flag waving Champagne drinking gloriously rejoicing slightly mad people packed three and four deep. Do you want to climb up on that Corpse of communism that Scourge of history yes yes a Well just raise your hands kick your feet and they pull you up like that no paperwork required tonight no wondering whether they la shoot you. No death strip anymore want to Cross Over to the other Side then just jump Man As simple As that and there you Are in Freedom s mob pushing and weaving on through to the great Gate because one has to get to the Gate. On this night one has to touch it. Stand under it. The few East German guards visible in the manic glee just Grin under their pile hats stare almost benignly upward As German youths clamber like monkeys to the top of the Gate itself stand bellowing and waving both German flags. One group supports a Banner that urged free deutschland a deutschland a roars the crowd below the mob on the East Side of the Gate is Wilder than the mob on the West Side but by now they Veall mixed together and who cares even americans Are carried away it chokes me up mutters one "wild1" groans another. Nick Scholl 43. Irom Plains. A. Flow Over with a plane Load of americans just to be where history s happening Many americans come Over he s asked zillions he says. Scholl s been on the Wall with a family from the East who stared Bug eyed into the West for the very first time. The father tells me i Don t care if i lose my Job. My House my life. For this one night i am looking at the Light " raw emotion spills and splashes All around you like Strong wine. It gets to be almost too much for words and As Midnight strikes almost too much for eyes and ears. As images Flash and screaming rockets burst above in red Blue and White Star clusters and firecrackers explode everywhere below and the great crowd estimated by some at up to a million erupts in singing dancing hugging kissing drinking chanting hollering and simply babbling. A Man goes Down on the ground rooting around on All fours searching for his Champagne bottle women want to kiss you even if you re old and ugly a Young woman hands you a Sparkler. A group who brought their own music Start dancing in a Circle in the Middle of the 17th of june Street which some now Call the 9th of november Street. Others hop up in the roof of their Van and Start dancing youths Battle for each other s flags Good natured battling not the killing kind. Late arrivals in Black ties and sequins get swallowed up and swirled around in Freedom s party before they can say. Happy new overcome by the glory of it All people swoon and fall Oil the Wall in Blind ecstasy there seems enough Energy running through the mob to Light up the world As it heaves Back and Forth around the old Brandenburg Gate but at least it s Freedom s mob one sad note occurs when a huge movie screen collapses on the East Side of the Gate killing one and and injuring 135, but nothing can daunt the spirit of this gathering unless they close the opening in the Wall now it is 40 minutes into 1990 and a Young Man defiantly holds up a Hammer and chisel and Bangs on that bloody Wall that has been there his whole lifetime. As if trying to Knock it All Down at once and forever. Quite a says an elderly red faced englishman waving a Little British Flag quite a in a time of miracles Multi coloured fireworks streaked the sky a hundreds Page 14 the stars and stripes they lit Sparkler and drank Champagne. They hugged wednesday a
